The Music

Success came early for the Music. Lauded on the strength of a rough-edged demo tape by Radio 1's Steve Lamacq as "the best unsigned band in Britain", the Leeds four-piece released their much-praised eponymous 2002 debut album aged only 18 and found themselves touring the US with Coldplay just weeks later.

Such a precipitous ascent can take its toll, and singer Robert Harvey wrote recently of problems with drug and alcohol addiction and depression after the release of their 2004 second album, Welcome to the North. It also explains the four-year gap to the arrival of its follow-up, Strength in Numbers.

This album eschews the band's earlier indie-dance leanings in favour of an unashamedly hard rock direction, and tonight is a decidedly unsubtle affair. This "Four Cities" comeback tour sees them play small, medium and large venues in London, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow, but venue size is incidental to the Music: they tackle them all as if they are Wembley Stadium.

Typical are new tracks Drugs and No Weapon Stronger Than the Will, whose bludgeoning riffs and seismic rhythms veer between Led Zeppelin's brutish blues and the sludge-metal of Black Sabbath. Harvey exudes a bruised machismo, thumping his chest between songs and exhorting the crowd, Richard Ashcroft-style, to "Fookin' come on!"

Older tracks like Take the Long Road and Walk It are as stodgy as late Stone Roses or Be Here Now-era Oasis, and their fans celebrate with a bout of terrace chanting. "Nice one!" grunts Harvey. The Music are not about to redefine the future of music, but a sizeable constituency is happy to have them back and well.